What is Invite a Friend?

What's the purpose of IAF?

Invite a Friend is a way for 4N to reward members for bringing visitors to 4N meetings. New visitors are the life-blood of every 4N meeting and by incentivising you to bring visitors, everyone benefits.

We will reward you with free membership days for every first-time visitor who attends a meeting, who you have been the person to first introduce/invite/book them into 4Networking.

The person who visits a meeting does not need to become a 4N Passport member for you to be eligible to receive your free days - they simply need to attend the meeting.

How can I participate in IAF?

How can I earn FREE membership days?

You need to be a current Passport member to be eligible to earn Invite a Friend days. As a Passport member, you are rewarded with 5 free membership days when a first-time visitor you have invited attends a 4Networking meeting. The 5 days are added to your current total of Passport membership days as soon as the meeting is closed which your visitor has attended.

To earn free days, the following must happen:

The person must NOT already be registered as an Online Only member on the 4N website. At the point of registration, if the person is already on the system, this will be flagged up to you and prevent you from re-registering them.

Someone who is already registered on the 4N site is not eligible, even if they have never been to a meeting. The programme is designed to incentivise making brand new people aware of 4Networking and getting them to try a 4N meeting.

Can I book a friend into a meeting from a meeting page?

Yes, this is one of two ways in which you can book someone into a meeting. Go to any 4N meeting page and use the BOOK A FRIEND section. The person being booked in must be someone who is not currently registered on the 4Networking site and who has never previously attended a 4Networking meeting. Go to the Find Meetings page and then find the meeting you require - you must be logged in to do this. You can first book yourself into the meeting - although it isn't mandatory that you attend the meeting that you book your friend into, you will make the meeting more enjoyable by being there too.

You will be asked to provide 4 pieces of information about the friend you are booking in:

Name

Email address

Company name - so that their placeholder at the meeting will have all their information on it.

Telephone number - so that the group's team can contact them to confirm their attendance at the meeting and answer any queries they may have about the meeting.

You will be asked to tick a box to confirm that you have the person's permission to book them into the meeting. It is of course important that you only book people into meetings who have agreed that they would like to attend the meeting.

Then click the orange ‘BOOK FRIEND’ button. This books them into the meeting and sends the person a booking confirmation. This email includes your name as the person booking them in and your telephone contact information, so that they can contact you in case of a query.

Can I book someone into a meeting without first going to the meeting page?

Yes - this is the second way to book a friend into a meeting. To continue, you need to be logged in. Then go to the dropdown menu on the top right of the site. To access this, click the small down arrow next to your portrait photo and name. Click on the Networking section and then on the Invite a Friend link. This takes you to this page: http://my.4n.uat.sitedr.co.uk/my-account/invite-a-friend/

On this page you will be given the choice to Book a Friend, Invite a Friend or Introduce a Friend - see questions below for information on these last two options.

To Book a Friend, tick the 'Book someone onto a meeting' option. This then takes you back to the Find a Meeting page. Complete the booking process as outlined above.

Can I invite a friend to a meeting?

Yes, you can send an invitation to someone to attend a meeting without booking them into the meeting. However, you can only invite someone to a meeting which you are already booked into. Go to your Invite a Friend page.

Select this tick option: Invite someone to a meeting and follow the instructions. For this invitation we only need your friend's name and email address.

When you click on the orange SEND INVITATION button, this triggers an email, inviting the person to your chosen meeting. This email includes your name as the person booking them in and your telephone contact information, so that they can contact you in case of a query.

The email asks the person to actively accept or decline the meeting invitation.

You will be asked to tick a box to confirm that you have the person's permission to invite them to the meeting. It is of course important that you only invite people to meetings who have agreed to be invited. Don't spam people with invitations!

Can I introduce someone to 4N without inviting or booking them to a specific meeting?

If your friend is interested in 4Networking but isn't ready to attend a meeting, then you can just introduce them to the network. Then, if they choose to come along to a meeting within 60 days of being introduced, you will get 5 extra days added to your Passport membership. Please note that if one of your friends first attends a meeting after your own Passport membership has expired, you will not receive the 5 extra days' membership.

To be eligible, your friend must be someone who has never previously been registered on the 4N site. Introducing them to 4N will trigger a friendly email sent from 4N with details about the network and suggesting that they register and try a 4N meeting. You will be referred to in the email, so that they know where the introduction has come from.

You will be asked to tick a box to confirm that you have the person's permission to introduce them to 4Networking. It is of course important that you only introduce people who are expecting this introduction. Don't spam people with introductions!

Is there a time limit on my friend attending?

In terms of your eligibility to earn Invite a Friend days, yes there is a time limit.

If you have introduced someone to 4Networking, it is you who will gain any free days as long as that person attends a 4N meeting up to 60 days from the date of the initial introduction.

Similarly, if you start by inviting or booking someone into a meeting, they must attend a meeting no later than 60 days from your first invitation/booking.

After that time, the person can be booked into a meeting by another Passport member, and then if the invitee attends a meeting during that next 60 days, it is this new Passport member who would gain the 5 extra days membership.

How can I see free days I've earned?

Where can I see my Invite a Friend activity?

Your Invite a Friend page summarises all your Invite a Friend activity. To see this page, you need to be logged in. Then go to the dropdown menu on the top right of the site. To access this, click the small down arrow next to your portrait photo and name. Click on the Networking section and then on the Invite a Friend link. This takes you to your Invite a Friend page.

On this page you will see the status of all these aspects:

Invited: All the people you have invited to meetings.

Registered: All the people you have introduced to 4Networking, but havent' invited to a meeting or booked into a meeting.

Booked: All the people you have booked into meetings.

No Show: All the people who you have booked into meetings, or who are linked to you through Inviting or Introducing, who were booked into a meeting but didn't turn up to the meeting.

Visited: All the people who you have booked/invited/introduced, who have visited a meeting. These are the people earning you your FREE membership days!

Joined: As additional information, even though it doesn't affect the status or eligibility of your free days, you can see who has gone on to become a Passport member, giving you ongoing networking opportunities with that person.

Declined: People who have actively declined your invitation to a meeting.

The summary chart at the top of the page shows you the number of people currently in each of these categories, with then a final tally of the free days you have earned from Invite a Friend so far.

Is there a limit to the number of Invite a Friend days I can earn?

No - the 5 extra days for each first-time visitor who attends a meeting will just keep being added to your membership.

Can I still earn more days if my visitor becomes a Passport member?

No, that was our previous Invite a Friend programme, which is no longer running. The only exception to this is a transitional period of moving from the old scheme to this new one. This transition period ran from 1st October - 30th November 2018. Any legacy invites from the previous Invite a Friend scheme were honoured during this period if the invitee becomes a Passport member before 30th November 2018.

After 30th November 2018, all outstanding activity relating the previous Invite a Friend scheme was wiped clean. All existing extra Invite a Friend days added to membership have continued to be valid.

Are team members eligible?

As a team member, can I earn extra days too?

Yes! Extra days are available in addition to the existing benefits for Area Leaders, Group Leaders, Group Co-ordinators, Visitor Co-ordinators and Marketing Co-ordinators.

However, team members and 4N HQ Support Desk should NOT register new people on behalf of other Passport members, as this will mean that any Invite a Friend days go to the team member and not the Passport member they are registering someone on behalf of.

If you are a team member and you have, for example, invited someone on a member's behalf to your group's next meeting, to ensure that Passport member is correctly accredited with potential extra days, you must pass the details back to the Passport member for them to book their new visitor into the meeting or to register them onto the site.

Am I expected to use IAF?

Will I be under pressure to bring visitors or introduce and invite people?

Not at all! It's your choice! Each group's team will continue to work hard to attract new visitors and to ensure that each meeting is buzzing, fun and productive. But if you fancy adding extra days to your membership just by recommending 4N, then please get involved.

Am I expected to sell 4N to my friends during meetings?

NO. The key is just to get people along to experience 4N!

Your visitors will be treated in the same way as visitors are now - no hard sell, just the group team explaining the value of 4N and ensuring they are aware of the joining options, allowing people to make their own decision. Of course, if you do want to encourage them to join, then feel free!

IAF Referral code - how it works

How does the IAF referral code work?

To make it easier to spread the word about 4Networking and to be rewarded for it with extra days' membership, every 4Networking member can add a personalised referral code link on their own website, emails, twitter messages etc.

Your code looks like this: https://www.4Networking.biz?ref=12345

The '12345' element will be your own 4N membership number.

Your Invite a Friend referral code link, which as standard goes to the 4N home page, includes your unique identifier linking back to the member who is using it. This means that when the link is clicked by someone new to 4N, that new person is automatically identified by the 4N system as being linked to the relevant member. Then, should that person book or be booked into a meeting and then attend that meeting, the relevant linked person will be rewarded with 5 extra days membership.

Where can I find my referral code?

It is personalised with your unique identifying code, which is your 4N membership number.

Can I personalise my Invite a Friend referral code link?

Yes, you can amend the destination from the standard 4Networking home page just by changing the part of the link before the '?' element.

If, for example, your local group is Banbury and you wanted to direct people to the summary page of Banbury meetings as their landing page, you would change the promo code link from www.4networking.biz?ref=12345 to https://www.4networking.biz/groups/group-details/?groupid=2?ref=12345